Unable to install PyMuPDF on alpine docker image

Question

I am trying to install pymupdf package on apline image but getting below error

fitz/fitz_wrap.c:2739:10: fatal error: ft2build.h: No such file or directory
     2739 | #include <ft2build.h>
          |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~
    compilation terminated.
    error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

 RUN pip install PyMuPDF
 ---> Running in 34d246d6f01b
Collecting PyMuPDF
  Downloading PyMuPDF-1.18.5.tar.gz (251 kB)
Using legacy 'setup.py install' for PyMuPDF, since package 'wheel' is not installed.
Installing collected packages: PyMuPDF
    Running setup.py install for PyMuPDF: started
    Running setup.py install for PyMuPDF: finished with status 'error'
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: /usr/bin/python3.8 -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-uxc_zm2j/pymupdf/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-uxc_zm2j/pymupdf/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record /tmp/pip-record-nipvlcn8/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /usr/include/python3.8/PyMuPDF
         cwd: /tmp/pip-install-uxc_zm2j/pymupdf/
    Complete output (20 lines):
    running install
    running build
    running build_py
    creating build
    creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.8
    creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz
    copying fitz/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz
    copying fitz/fitz.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz
    copying fitz/utils.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz
    copying fitz/__main__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz
    running build_ext
    building 'fitz._fitz' extension
    creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.8
    creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz
    gcc -Wno-unused-result -Wsign-compare -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -g -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -g -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -g -DTHREAD_STACK_SIZE=0x100000 -fPIC -I/usr/include/mupdf -I/usr/local/include/mupdf -Imupdf/thirdparty/freetype/include -I/usr/include/python3.8 -c fitz/fitz_wrap.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-3.8/fitz/fitz_wrap.o
    fitz/fitz_wrap.c:2739:10: fatal error: ft2build.h: No such file or directory
     2739 | #include <ft2build.h>
          |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~
    compilation terminated.
    error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: /usr/bin/python3.8 -u -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'/tmp/pip-install-uxc_zm2j/pymupdf/setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'/tmp/pip-install-uxc_zm2j/pymupdf/setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' install --record /tmp/pip-record-nipvlcn8/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile --install-headers /usr/include/python3.8/PyMuPDF Check the logs for full command output.
WARNING: You are using pip version 20.2.4; however, version 20.3.3 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the '/usr/bin/python3.8 -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.
The command '/bin/sh -c pip install PyMuPDF' returned a non-zero code: 1

Shahjahanpur

Hello, can you share your docker file ? We don't have enougth information, but it seems like an issue with your include dir. Are you installing PyMuPDF with pip ? Are you using python 3 ? Is pip up to date ? – Repentance

yes we are using python3 version and pip is also latest version – Shahjahanpur

Not all package could be run in alpine, which pymupdf I think is one of them, you could install freetype-dev, and set ENV C_INCLUDE_PATH=$C_INCLUDE_PATH:/usr/include/freetype2 to resolve this issue, but you will finally still encounter other error which told you the error is from source code ... – Batfish

Answer 1

freetype-dev in Alpine will be installed in /usr/include/freetype2. You can link headers and directories to /usr/include apk add mupdf-dev installed mupdf with a method structure inconsistent with that of pymupdf,So you need to compile the mupdf library from source code.

FROM python:3.8-alpine
RUN apk add gcc g++ cmake make mupdf-dev freetype-dev
ARG MUPDF=1.18.0
RUN ln -s /usr/include/freetype2/ft2build.h /usr/include/ft2build.h \
    && ln -s /usr/include/freetype2/freetype/ /usr/include/freetype \
    && wget -c -q https://www.mupdf.com/downloads/archive/mupdf-${MUPDF}-source.tar.gz \
    && tar xf mupdf-${MUPDF}-source.tar.gz \
    && cd mupdf-${MUPDF}-source \
    && make HAVE_X11=no HAVE_GLUT=no shared=yes prefix=/usr/local install \
    && cd .. \
    && rm -rf *.tar.gz mupdf-${MUPDF}-source
RUN pip install PyMuPDF==1.18.9

Try this , it works

Also, Alpine's official Mupdf library has been updated to make installation easier.(Updated at 2021-04-28)

FROM python:3.8-alpine
# Add temporary virtual environment dependencies
RUN apk --no-cache add --virtual .builddeps gcc g++

# These dependency packages cannot be removed because they continue to be used in PyMupdf
RUN apk --no-cache add  mupdf-dev freetype-dev jbig2dec-dev jpeg-dev openjpeg-dev 

# install PyMupdf
RUN pip install pymupdf

# Remove virtual environment dependencies
RUN apk del .builddeps

Shizukoshizuoka

please explain your answer – Clanton

freetype-dev will be installed in /usr/include/freetype2 and will need to be manually linked to /usr/include. The mupdf-dev library is required to install the mupdf library from source code. When you compile mupdf, you need to compile it into a shared library so that it will be detected when you install pymupdf – Shizukoshizuoka

I'm using python:3.7-alpine3.13 and, after several hours of trying various things, I can confirm this (and only this) works. @ghoul, thank you kindly! – Ulmer

Answer 2

For those kind of errors there are simple steps to take:

1. Read the error and identify the missing file, you have done it already, you seems to be missing ft2build.h
2. Go the the Alpine package website and browse the Contents tab
3. In the field File type in the name of the file you are missing; in Branch, select your Alpine version and in Repository select main
4. This will point you at a sepcific package, just install it via apk in your Dockerfile and you should be good to go

---

In your case, this is the result of such a search on Alpine version 3.12:

So you issue can be fixed adding in the existing apk command the package freetype-dev

RUN apk add --no-cache \
      freetype-dev

Foetation

I already tried with freetype-dev pacakge but still getting same error – Shahjahanpur

Thanks for this, much better than googling every missing dependency, which is what I've been doing – Lamprophyre

Answer 3

Try to update pip first with pip install -U pip.

Here is a deep dive into the problem https://github.com/pymupdf/PyMuPDF/issues/894 there an old pip that get source from tar.gz file rather than .whl and the build has been failed because of wrong INCLUDE dir for freetype2 which is workarounded since PyMuPDF 1.18.2 but... Pypi has outdated source tar.gz.

Winifredwinikka

Answer 4

The problem is that there is no wheel on PyPI for the envrionment established by the docker file. In such cases, pip tries to create PyMuPDF from sources. Because PyMuPDF is a binding for MuPDF, this in turn is bound to fail, when there is no MuPDF installation ... like here. The solution therefore is to

• either install MuPDF before installing PyMuPDF
• or use one of the OS / Python combinations for which there is a wheel.

Sidedress

Same with Centos 7 -- not only with docker. I can't install MuPDF or PyMuPDF. Why not providing wheels for those OSes, or is it not possible at all? This would make it simpler for everyone because as of now, I can't install MuPDF not matter what solutions have been provided. – Communistic

If you even cannot install MuPDF, then there is no hope for PyMuPDF of course. As per the plethora of mutually incompatible Linux flavors: that's why wheel platform tags manylinux exist. Hard to believe that none of them is applicable to your situation BTW. Continuous Integration services like Github Actions or Travis CI try are there to help by providing operating systems for the popular cases. I am using Github Actions, which has the largest spread of support. Publish your problem on PyMuPDF's home page github.com/pymupdf/PyMuPDF. Will be easier to solve it there. – Sidedress

@Communistic Another comment: the latest manylinux wheels are built based on CentOS 7! So this makes your difficulties a weird phenomenon. You simply should find a fitting wheel on PyPI. If you indeed don't: is your machine / Python not 64bit? – Sidedress

Thank you for the answer. Very interesting information. I use a 64-bit machine with python 3.6 and 3.8. I will try another wheel based on your comments. – Communistic

Because Python 3.6 is now a zombie version, there is no more wheel support for this. Hope you understand. But a 3.8 wheel simply should work! – Sidedress

Good to know. I am going to do this with 3.8. – Communistic

Robin: good luck! But please make sure to update pip first. This will ensure pip knows about the most recent valid wheel platform tags. – Sidedress

Jorj: It works fine with 3.8. Thanks. – Communistic

Answer 5

this work for me, and only work with python:3.8.10 or greater and with Pymupdf:1.18.14:

1). Only if you don't have python installed:
apk add --update py-pip

2). Install dependencies:

apk add --no-cache \
python3-dev \
mupdf-dev \
gcc \
libc-dev \
musl-dev \
jbig2dec \
openjpeg-dev \
jpeg-dev \
harfbuzz-dev

3). Create Shortcut:
ln -s /usr/lib/libjbig2dec.so.0 /usr/lib/libjbig2dec.so

4). install PymuPdf:
pip install pymupdf

only if you want do at same time:

apk add --update py-pip \
&& apk add --no-cache \
python3-dev \
mupdf-dev \
gcc \
libc-dev \
musl-dev \
jbig2dec \
openjpeg-dev \
jpeg-dev \
harfbuzz-dev \
&& ln -s /usr/lib/libjbig2dec.so.0 /usr/lib/libjbig2dec.so \
&& pip install pymupdf

Readability